BELIEVE it or not, you can't escape Disney World. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Winnie the Pooh look out from T-shirts, school bags and lunch boxes. Cartoons such as "Snow White" and "The Lion King" shape the childhoods of countless kids .
While Disney's products might have been your favourites as a child, you may not have realized that Disney has tried to limit your imagination.
"The Little Mermaid" is a good example. The lesson of the original tale was about the evils of lust. In the original story, the mermaid lusts after the prince, but the prince does not choose her. In the end, she dies while the sea witch lives. In Disney's film, the lesson is completely lost because the mermaid lives. The prince picks her, and the sea witch dies. Disney completely leaves out the destructive nature of lust.
According to US writer Elizabeth Bell, Disney tries to keep its innocence by taking violence, sex, and race struggles out of the movies. However, these are all real-life problems that children must face.
While "family-friendly" treatment is the way Disney has dealt with classic fairy tales , its films spread American values. Aladdin and the lamp is a well-known story. Although the film is set in an Arabian city, its treatment of romance is very much American. Young people choose their own mates and recognize the right person right away. Even their parents accept the love when they see their children's happiness. Aladdin and heroine Jasmine have physical contact during their first meeting. The common American advice "be yourself" works. What's more, some critics have pointed out that Disney makes fun of Arab culture in the film. For example, a holy man hurts himself playing with fire, and thieves with scimitars run through the streets.
Disney is called the top promoter of Americanization. "It is a danger to our cultural diversity," said Akio Igarashi, a professor in a Japanese university.
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